


Time Alone

by clarewrites (sclare)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Camping, F/M, Fluff, just general cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6126865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sclare/pseuds/clarewrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gansey and Blue sneak out to go camping together</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, please give feedback or comment :-)

They set off first thing in the morning. The sun hadn't fully risen yet, but it was the clear the day was going to be warm, unbearably so. Blue had crept out the house first, trying to navigate the corridors of 300 Fox Way without making any noise. It had been near impossible, but she'd made it out unscathed without a group of Aunts/a worried Maura nagging her. She left a note on the fridge that was vague but didn't make it look like she'd been kidnapped, and then, slinging her backpack full of camping stuff stolen from dark corners of the attic over her shoulder, left to meet Gansey. He'd parked a few blocks away, but she didn't mind the walk, it was still cool outside and she liked the feel of the slight breeze on her bare neck. She eventually reached the Pig, and inside the orange monstrosity sat Gansey, his wire-frames on and hands resting lightly on the wheel, tapping out a tune she couldn't quite catch. He smiled when he looked up and saw her, and then grimaced when he saw the huge backpack resting precariously on her shoulder. "How much did you bring?" He asked, a little incredulously, as she slipped into the passenger seat, dumping the bag on the backseat behind. "Just the essentials," she replied, "A tent, cooking stuff, clothes for tomorrow, a tooth brush, some breakfast, sleeping bags, you know, camping stuff." She paused, laughing for a minute at the look on his face, "Wait, what did you bring?"  
Gansey froze for a minute, looking a bit awkward, "Um a sleeping bag, clothes, and some sandwiches." She froze, then burst out laughing again, "You made sandwiches!" He turned red and started the car, turning the key a few times until the engine stuttered to life. "Well, I thought we'd get hungry," he replied, his ears burning a bright red as he pulled out onto the road, the Pig roaring unhealthily as he did so. "Wait, you go caving right, how do you not know what to bring to go camping?" His ears burned redder, and when he tried to offer a reply it came out as an embarrassed mumble. She decided to let it go after a few more digs, and then paused. "Is it too early to start the sandwiches?" She asked, reaching into his bag without asking and pulling them out. "I think so, it's 6:30 AM," Gansey answered, but when she began to dig into an artfully created wrap he held his hand out, clapping his fingers, until she tore a piece off and handed it to him.

They drove through the heat of midday, the Pig flying along the road with only minimal complaining. They spent the hours talking lazily, Gansey occasionally drifting into rants about Glendower that left Blue a little bored, but she humoured, if just to see the way his eyes lit up a little bit and to laugh at the way he kept removing his hands from the steering wheel to gesture wildly, to the point Blue had to keep reminding him to keep them in place, once with a tug on the steering wheel to keep the car from drifting along the road. The roads were empty, the sun was high and the conversation was good, to the point that Blue almost forgot that it would all be over soon. That this could be the last opportunity they had to do this, that someday soon and coming increasingly sooner, she wouldn't see him everyday, that she wouldn't be able to get bored at his rants. She forced the thoughts away with difficulty as the journey hit it's fifth hour, and tuned back into their conversation that he'd happily led for the last ten minutes. They reached the campsite in the early evening, the heat still ferociously beating at them, but the site was mercifully empty. They pulled the tent's various pieces out of Blue's enormous backpack, and then looked at them in complete confusion. The ground around them was a mess of the material, metal poles and pegs. They stared at them for a while, until Gansey burst out laughing, took a look at Blue's un-amused face, and then began to laugh even more. "I thought that at least you knew stuff about camping," he said. "Mom always put the tent up," she replied, attempting to sound haughty and offended, but he could tell her voice was beginning to crack with the strain of keeping it together. It was all so badly planned and a little ridiculous that it was funny. "What are we going to do?" She asked, after a while, looking at Gansey for guidance. He pushed his glasses up his nose a little further, and replied, "Just give it go?" His voice still shaking from the effort of stopping the laughter. And that's when it began to pour with rain.

Putting a tent up in the pouring, almost painfully hard, rain was not fun. It was to begin with, as they both slid in the mud that seemed to swell and grow as the rain continued to tip down on them, but as time passed and it didn't relent and they grew colder, it stopped being as thrilling. The tent was half up, and they were two hours into the rainstorm, when Blue began to wonder if they were ever going to get it fully completed, and if they'd just have to sleep in the pouring rain. She was growing disheartened when Gansey, kneeling in the mud and peering awkwardly through fogged up glasses, shouted, "Eureka!", making Blue jump out her skin. "What?" She yelled over the roar of the downpour, stopping to kneel down besides him. "I think I have it! I think I've worked it out!" He shouted back, "It's logic, see?" He held up a tent peg and grinned. She didn't see, but she found it sweet that he did, and shouted back, affectionately, "Nerd!"  
The tent was quickly finished after that, and they crawled inside, sopping wet but happy, and listening to the thud of the rain on the tent's roof. It was that moment when Blue realised just how close they were, that when she turned they were almost nose to nose, lips close, the same air being breathed between the two of them. It occurred to her that all she needed to do was lean forward and their mouths would be touching, and they'd be kissing. They'd be together. It felt dangerous and wonderful and all built up into a painful centre in her chest, to the point she thought she might burst. "Are you happy?" he asked, suddenly, obviously aware of their proximity, their terrible, bittersweet closeness. She was about the answer his question when the tent collapsed on them both, dumping icy water over them. She laughed her reply, suddenly allowing the spell to break and the joy of the day to sink back in, thinking not of how cold she was but how good it was to have time alone, just the two of them.


End file.
